Actor Naseeruddin Shah averred in an interview that his opinion and knowledge about Akbar have changed after signing for forthcoming project titled Taj: Divided By Blood. He stated some misinformation on the Mughal ruler, especially one in which it is said the ruler had started his own religion–Din-e-Elahi. The actor claimed that he had fact-checked information with historians and called it ‘nonsense.’
Naseeruddin plays the epic character of Akbar in Taj. Helmed by Ronald Scalpello, the show also features Aditi Rao Hydari, Dharmendra, Taha Shah Badussha, Sandhya Mridul and Shubham Kumar Mehra in pivotal roles.
Mentioning about the show, Shah pointed the false information being shared on Akbar. In an interview, he told Indian Express, “My understanding initially was that of any student who studied history in the 50s or the early 60s, just in the wake of independence when the influence of British was still very strong. We had Irish teachers, English instructors. The picture drawn of Akbar was always that of a benevolent, kind hearted, broad minded, progressive ruler. The one fly in the ointment being his desire to start a new religion. We read about this in history books, which is absolute nonsense.”
“I have checked this with authoritative historians and Akbar never did attempt to start a new religion. This is a fact which was in our history books called the Din-e Elahi. But Akbar never used the word Din-e Elahi, ever. He called it Wahdat-e Elahi, which means oneness of the creator. That no matter who you worship, in what form you worship him, you’re worshipping the creator. You may worship a stone, you may worship a crucifix, you may bow your head to the Kaaba, you may worship the rising sun and do what you like, but you are worshipping one and the same thing. That was his belief. This is what I found out,” he added.
